The Warriors had to be this good to beat the Houston Rockets. And the Rockets had to be this good to beat the Warriors.

The whole point of this entire Houston Rockets season was for them to have a real chance to beat the Golden State Warriors.

All they wanted was to do everything they could to maximize the slim odds of dethroning the reigning NBA champions. There has never been a team designed so meticulously with another team in mind. The Rockets understood that to win the championship, they would almost certainly have to get past Golden State, and they didn’t see the point in pretending otherwise.